Drillimation Studios
ドリメーションスタジオ |Row 1 title = Industry |Row 1 info = Software, video games, anime |Row 2 title = Founded |Row 2 info = 1958 |Row 3 title = Defunct |Row 3 info = 2007 (reestablished in 2009) |Row 4 title = Fate |Row 4 info = Merged with Kyoto Animation |Row 5 title = Headquarters |Row 5 info = Tokyo, Japan |Row 6 title = Parent |Row 6 info = Bandai Namco Holdings}} is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, as well as an animation studio located in Tokyo, Japan. The company is currently owned by Bandai Namco Holdings and Kyoto Animation. History Drillimation Studios was founded in 1958 by a recent graduate of the Tokyo University named Hiroshi Takajima. In 1961, Drillimation created their mascot character, Susumu Hori, who would then become a worldwide phenomenon in the years that pass. As time flew by, Takajima and his staff presented the anime shorts to Toho, the infamous studio for producing the Godzilla film series. Toho found them useful and bought half of Drillimation, making them a second-party studio for Toho. Toho also gave the company an unlimited budget and let them make any anime series they wish. With the unlimited budget, Drillimation went on to produce the Angry German Kid series. The series was a huge success spanning three years and almost one third of all children in Japan enjoyed the series. The group would work around 14 hours a day to continue their ongoing success with Space Ninja Team Star Trigon. In 1974, the studio received a request from Hanna-Barbera to create a Drillimation series exclusively for the United States. Takajima packed his bags and headed to Los Angeles, California to talk with Hanna-Barbera founders William Hanna and Joseph Barbera about bringing The Drillimation Series to the United States. The GoGang series was a series to introduce the American children to the world of anime. While the studio was working on Magical Girl Team Lucky Star, Lucasfilm and Hanna-Barbera produced the English dubs of Angry German Kid and Space Ninja Team Star Trigon. In 1985, employees from Namco visited Drillimation Studios, looking for purchase offers. In November 1985, Namco paid a total of $200 million to own 100% of Drillimation, making them a first party video game company for Namco. This caused Toho to lose the rights to Drillimation properties, but Namco let Drillimation to continue producing anime. After the accusation, Namco began reworking Drillimation into a video game developer. At that point, Namco gave Drillimation a choice of any Namco character to implement into The Drillimation Series, and they chose Taizo Hori from Dig Dug. The first game that Drillimation produced was Mr. Driller using the new Driller Engine game engine in 1986. It was a huge success in Japan and the United States with the impressive anime-style cutscenes and catchy music, prompting Universal Studios to produce an English dub of the Mr. Driller anime series. While Drillimation Studios continued their ongoing success in the Japanese and American arcade markets with Lucky Star and the video game adaptation of the first season of Angry German Kid. When Drillimation upgraded to the Driller Engine 2000 arcade board, they couldn't stop moving on. The first game they developed using the Driller Engine 2000 arcade board was Mr. Driller G. Their next huge success occurred with Super Lucky Star 4. In 1990, Drillimation began working on the fourth game in the Angry German Kid series. Unable to continue the project, the team decided to make a fighting game instead, thus becoming Super Smash Keyboards. Drillimation upped the project by adding features that weren't seen in Street Fighter II, such as brutal finishing moves, digitized voice acting, and lots of sweat. While they were making their next big hit, Drillimation developed Driller Engine Grand Prix to hold their fans over until the release of Angry Video Game Nerd: The Arcade and Crystal Island in 1994. Notable Staff *Hiroshi Takajima, founder and director of several Drillimation games and anime *Susumu Takajima, current president of the company, as well as the director of several games by Drillimation *Hideaki Hatta, animator for several episodes of Space Ninja Team Star Trigon *Mikihiro Iwata, animator for several episodes of Magical Girl Team Lucky Star and Mr. Driller Controversies ''To Heart In 1997 and 2004, Drillimation released two games of the ''To Heart anthology for the Nintendo 64 and Xbox consoles, with production assisted by Rareware. During those times, there were numerous reports of teens engaging in the activities featured in both games. Nintendo and Microsoft have filed lawsuits to Drillimation for the controversies. YouTube In 2009, the FBI accused Drillimation Studios for abusing the DMCA by forcing YouTube to remove many videos that contain Drillimation content. This caused so much anger and frustration to many YouTubers, as Drillimation retracted many of their claims, as well as responding to the many counter-notifications they received. The copyright manager for the Japan facility was fired and Drillimation hired a new copyright manager who knew what fair use is. Nihon Ad Systems In 2011, Drillimation Studios published a special Yu-Gi-Oh video on YouTube featuring Susumu Hori and Keel Sark dueling. Shortly after the publication, Nihon Ad Systems filed a copyright complaint to YouTube, which caused the video to become blocked worldwide, even though Drillimation had the rights from Konami to do so. Drillimation Studios filed a lawsuit to NAS, who apologized and retracted the claim. Subsidiaries The company also holds four subsidiaries. They include: *Shaft, established in 1975 and purchased in 2011 *Kyoto Animation, established in 1981 and purchased in 2006 *Seven Arcs, established in 2002 and purchased in 2005 *A-1 Pictures, established in 2005 and purchased in 2012 Category:Drillimation